their deaths denied it. Yet at this assize, John Perry persisted in his story, that his mother and brother had murdered his master, and that they had attempted to poison him in gaol for his discovering it, so that he durst not eat or drink with them. And, at the next Assizes following, Joan, John, and Richard Perry, were, by the Judge of Assize, Sir Robert Hyde, Knt. tried upon the ins dictment of murder, and pleaded, not guilty; when John's confession before the justice was proved viva voce, by several witnesses who heard the same. He then told the Court, he was mad, and did not know what he had said. The other two, Richard and Joan Perry, declared they were wholly innocent of what they were accused, that they knew nothing of Mr. Harrison's death, nor what was become of him, and Richard said, his brother had accused others as well as him to have murdered his master, which the Judge bidding him prove, he said, that most of them that had given evidence against him, knew it; but naming nobody, nor any body speaking to it, the Jury found them all guilty.

Some days after, being brought to the place of execution, which was on Broadway Hill, within sight of Campden, the mother being reputed a witch, and to have so bewitched her sons, they could confess nothing while she lived, was first executed, (strange ignorance and superstition!) af

ter which, Richard being on the ladder, professed as he had done all along, that he was wholly innocent of the fact for which he was to die, and that he knew nothing of Mr. Harrison's death, nor what was become of him, and did with great earnestness, beg and beseech his brother (for the satisfaction of the world and his own conscience) to declare what he knew concerning it. But he, with a dogged and surly carriage, told the people he was not obliged to confess to them; yet immediately before his death, said, He knew nothing of his master's death, nor what was become of him, but they might hereafter possibly hear.

It is strange that a Judge would order the execution of three persons for the supposed murder of a man, whose body was not found, or heard of at the time of trial, upon the confession of a madman or an enthusiast. However, Mr. Harrison, some years after, appeared alive; and in a letter to Sir Thomas Overbury, of Burton, in Gloucestershire, gave an account how that very night, August 16th, returning home, after receiving the rents, he was set upon, and forced by several stages to the sea side, put on board a ship, and carried into Turkey, where he was sold for a slave to a physician, and continued with him for about a year and three quarters, when his master died; then he made the best of his way to a sea-port, and with great difficulty got on board a Hamburgh

ship bound for, and arrived safe at, Lisbon; from whence, by the means of an English merchant, he got on board an English vessel, and arrived safe at Dover, and from thence to his own home, to the surprise of all the country. This account was sent with the following letter from Sir Thomas Overbury to Dr. Shirley, who published it:

SIR,

I herewith send you a short narrative of that no less strange than unhappy business, which some years since happened in my neighbourhood: the truth particular whereof I am able to attest: and I think it may very well be reckoned among the most remarkable occurrences of this age. You may dispose of it as you please, and in whatever I can serve you, you may freely command me, as Your most affectionate Kinsman,

and humble Servant,

THOMAS OVERBURY.

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE HOLT.

In the reign of Queen Anne, 1704, several freemen of the Borough of Aylesbury, who proved their qualifications, were refused the liberty of voting at the election of a member of parkament. The law in such cases imposes a fine on the returning officer of 1001. for every such offence. On this principle, they applied to Lord Chief Justice Holt, who ordered the officer to be arrested.

The House of Commons, alarmed at this step made an order of the House to make it penal for either judge, counsel, or attorney, to assist at the trial; however, the Lord Chief Justice and several lawyers were hardy enough to oppose this order, and brought it on in the Court of King's Bench, The House, highly irritated at this contempt of their order, sent a Sergeant at Arms for the judge to appear before them; but that resolute defender of the laws, bade him, with a voice of authority, "be gone; on which they sent a second mes sage by their Speaker, attended by as many members as espoused the measure. After the Speaker had delivered his message, his lordship replied to him in the following remarkable words: "Go back to your chair, Mr. Speaker, within this five minutes, or, you may depend on it, I will send you to Newgate. You speak of your authority; but I will tell you I sit here as an interpreter of the laws, and a distributor of justice, and were the whole House of Commons in your belly, I would not stir one foot !" The Speaker was prudent enough to retire, and the House were equally prudent in letting the affair drop.

The same judge had sent, by his warrant, one of the French prophets, a foolish sect that started up in his time, to prison; upon which Mr. Lacy, one of their followers, came to my Lord's house, and desired to speak to him. The servants told

him their lord was not well, and saw no company that day. "But tell him," said Lacy, "that I must see him, for I come to him from the Lord God." Which being told the Chief Justice, he ordered Lacy to come in, and asked him his business. "I come," said he, "from the Lord, who has sent me to thee, and would have thee grant a nolle prosequi for John Atkins, his servant, whom thou hast sent to prison." "Thou art a false prophet, and a lying knave," answered the judge. "If the Lord had sent thee, it would have been to the Attorney General, for the Lord knows it is not in my power to grant a nolle prosequi; but I can grant a warrant to commit thee to bear him company, which I certainly will."

THE COMMON BARRETER.

"A Barreter is a horse-leach, that onely sucks the corrupted blood of the law. He trades onely in tricks and quirks: his highway is in by-paths, and he loveth a cavill better than an argument; an evasion, than an answer. There be two kinds of them either such as fight themselves, or are trumpeters in a battel, to set on others. The former is a profest dueller in the law, that will challenge any, and in all suit-combats be either principall or second.

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